NXT

The Rotacaster wheels are not only great for making holonomic robotic platforms but also for the more mundane robotics models such as the one pictured above. This is a simple construction meant to illustrate the idea. The advantage of using a wheel like this over a standard caster wheel is that this can take a lot more weight without losing ... Read More »

I made a quick video to show off the Rotacaster wheels. As you can see traction is really great. I will do further testing on various surfaces. The wheels’ small size give you great control when directly driving them from the motor; there is no need for additional gearing down. This allows you to make a very compact construction. Additional ... Read More »

This morning the mailman had another package for me! It was a padded envelope with nothing less than the 4 Technic axle compatible holonomic wheel prototypes from Rotacaster. I haven’t had a chance to build anything with them but my first impressions are: Very compact, they’re about 3.5 units wide and about 6 units in diameter; Quiet! They’re all plastic, ... Read More »

My good friend Eric likes to build big. He is one of the designers and builders of the High Bay Storage System. A while back he told he wanted to build a tracked vehicle. He’s done this before, of course: Very nice, right? Not satisfied with this Lilliputian-sized tank (actual Lilliputians ride around in this), he set about making something ... Read More »

I’ve uploaded a new release of the ROBOTC Driver Suite. Version 1.5 has a couple of nice changes: Newly added: Drivers for Dexter Industries dFlex, dPressure and temp probe Test program for Mindsensors Touch Sensor MUX with HiTechnic Sensor MUX Driver for additional timers in ROBOTC Documentation changes: All drivers sorted by manufacturer for easy lookup (thanks to John Hansen ... Read More »

It seems balancing robots are all the rage now. Laurens Valk made one that even hit the Make: Magazine’s blog. It just so happened that Gus from HiTechnic was thinking the same thing a few weeks ago and has made one as well. It’s a different model and also works with RCX, NXT 1.0 and 2.0 sized wheels. The HTWay ... Read More »

BobBot Mk2 has learned a new trick: finding a can. Finding cans makes BobBot very happy; he even chirps when he sees one and gets very loud when it’s about 10 cms away from one. A lot of work still needs to be done: Approach towards can needs to be PID controlled for smooth steering instead of the waggle it ... Read More »

Meet BobBot Mk2, the intellectually challenged robot. This subsumption based robot is probably the most challenging robot I’ve ever had to program. It has quite a number of sensors: Mindsensors NXTCamV3 Mindsensors Magic Wand Mindsensors Dist-nx HiTechnic Sensor MUX HiTechnic EOPD LEGO Touch Sensor x 2 LEGO US Sensor Subsumption is not something I have an awful lot of experience ... Read More »

Mike Barnkob posted a really nice project on the ROBOTC forums; a liquid handling robot. I am sure you’ve seen them on most CSI shows; not like this one, however. As you can see from the picture, it’s a fairly large contraption. For additional coolness, he made use of the Firgelli Linear Actuators. The motors are controlled by using two NXTs ... Read More »

I love days when I really feel like building something, you know that inspired feeling you get? Today I started building at about 9am and didn’t come out of my Lego room all day except for dinner and lunch. I took some pictures of the unholy mess my desk was covered with. The first picture was taken after about an ... Read More »